THE INFLUENCE OF INFORMAL FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP ON STUDENTS' MOTIVATION

Abstract

Informal relationships between faculty members and students are a necessary element of the educational process in higher education. Furthermore, student motivation plays a significant role in a student's success. Although several studies have explored the effect of informal relationships between students and faculty on student motivation, very few studies have been conducted on this topic in Kazakhstan. Thus, this study intends to reduce this gap. This study aims to explore the effects of informal student-faculty relationships on students' motivation at one Kazakhstani university's pedagogical institute. These are the questions the study is intended to answer: RQ1: How do students characterize their relationship with faculty members? RQ2: How do students' gender and age affect student-faculty relationships and students' motivation? RQ3: Can student social interactions predict students' motivation? In order to answer these research questions, quantitative non-experimental research designs were used. One hundred sixty-one undergraduates over 18 of one Kazakhstani university's pedagogical institute were surveyed online. This research reveals that students are optimistic about their informal relationships with faculty members. Moreover, the study found that age and gender modestly affect student-faculty relationships and students' motivation. Furthermore, the results of this study show that the informal relationship of the faculty with students significantly affects students' motivation. This study definitively answers the question regarding the effects of informal student-faculty relationships on students' motivation. The benefit of this research to faculty administrators and policymakers is to improve the relationship between faculty and students outside the classroom at Kazakhstani universities.